


Beating Heart

by gurajiorasu



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 16:34:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2514533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gurajiorasu/pseuds/gurajiorasu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Masaki had worked as secret service’s scientist for long enough to know that there’s no such thing as too paranoid. His lover had undergone enough missions to have noticeable amount of enemies that would like to have him caught. Or dead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beating Heart

Masaki came home after a long day at work. He had been meddling with bolts and nuts for hours and he felt so spent. He just wanted to climb to his fluffy bed and cuddle with Satoshi.

“Tadaima,” he greeted while changing his shoes. No one answered.  
His brows furrowed and he wandered to the living room. No one’s there and it was weird. He repeated, “Tadaima. Satoshi?”

Still, there was no answer. Masaki was alerted because Satoshi had never failed to answer his greetings, so he clutched his tiny gun in his lab coat and proceeded inside carefully.  
Masaki had worked as secret service’s scientist for long enough to know that there’s no such thing as too paranoid. His lover had undergone enough missions to have noticeable amount of enemies that would like to have him caught. Or dead.

Masaki shivered to the thought and he moved faster. He wouldn’t be able to make it if he had to lose _this_ Satoshi _too_.

Masaki’s breath was steady but his heartbeat was wild. He reached for the bedroom’s doorknob, recalling every defense moves Satoshi had taught him.

Masaki opened the door in a blow and he held his gun out, ready to shoot. He scanned the room and his shoulders slumped when his eyes spotted Satoshi in the bed.  
Asleep.

“Thank God!” Masaki exhaled a relieved breath and put down his gun. He approached the sleeping man and caressed Satoshi’s cheek lovingly, “Thank God, Satoshi. Thank God!”

Satoshi stirred in his sleep and nuzzled to Masaki’s palm, making Masaki chuckled fondly.

“So you’re just sleeping, hm?” Masaki pinched Satoshi’s cheek softly. It was weird actually, that Satoshi was asleep without Masaki telling him to, but Masaki couldn’t care less about it.

Satoshi was there and Masaki didn’t have to sleep alone that night, that’s all that mattered.

The little scene made him realized that it’s better if Satoshi could contact him immediately when there’s any emergency, though. So Masaki aborted his initial plan to cuddle with Satoshi and walked to his study instead.

Masaki’s study was nothing like common people’s study. It was not filled up with books, it was filled up with large screens, half assembled machines, and suspicious substances. It was more like a messy lab than a study.

When Masaki stepped in, it was completely dark except for that one screen that was always turned on. It showed a world map and it used to show a blinking blue dot to indicate Satoshi’s location and a green one to indicate Masaki’s location.  
Now there’s only a green dot there, no blue dot anymore. Not since that day when Satoshi was assigned for an undercover mission to North Korea and went missing.

Masaki stared morosely to the screen. The ‘Ohno Satoshi is out of radar’ alert that had been flashing for years there pierced Masaki’s heart.

Masaki closed his eyes to shake off any gloomy feelings. Satoshi might not be found yet, but he’s out there; alive and breathing. Masaki strongly believed in that.

He turned on the lamp and one of the computer. He pondered for a while.  
 _Should I put the same tracking device to_ this _Satoshi too?_  
Masaki frowned when he remembered how the tracking device was not helping at all. He remembered how the blue dot suddenly disappeared few hours after Satoshi arrived to North Korea. He remembered how the headquarter fell into panic as Satoshi’s special communication device - the one that was created by Masaki, too - stopped working. He remembered how he could only hear static and stare to the agitating warning.  
 _No, no stupid devices anymore_ , Masaki decided with a bitter feeling swarming in his chest.

Masaki started to work on his computer, creating a module called ‘Emergency Handling’ to be installed on Satoshi later. Not on the real Satoshi, of course, but on the Satoshi that was with him while they still couldn’t find the real Satoshi.  
The extremely-human-like robot Satoshi that Masaki created out of sadness and desperation around a year after the real Satoshi went missing.

Masaki smirked pathetically as he typed. He always felt this pathetic feeling every time he work on a module for his robot Satoshi.  
And well, he couldn’t say that he was not pathetic, so his feeling was adjusted actually. Building a robot that looked and behaved like your missing boyfriend was absolutely the definition of pathetic.

At first, Masaki created robot Satoshi just so he could call out ‘Satoshi’ and receive a sleepy sounded answer in return. Just that. Because coming home to a silence house and cold bed just depressed Masaki so much it broke him.  
But as the time passed by, he couldn’t resist to add various modules to make the robot more and more similar to the real Satoshi. ‘Love to Fish’ module and ‘Artsy’ module were some examples of hundreds of modules that Aiba had created.

Masaki didn’t treat the robot as a substitute for Satoshi, no. Masaki treated him as a friend, as a device to keep his sanity intact. He knew that robot Satoshi wasn’t _his_ Satoshi. He knew that robot Satoshi couldn’t be _his_ Satoshi, no matter how alike their appearances and their traits were.  
Because he was simply _not_ Satoshi. And he was simply _not_ in love with Masaki.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” Satoshi startled Masaki by suddenly wounding his arms around Masaki’s shoulders.

“Because you’re so cute?” Masaki giggled. Satoshi felt so warm behind him. He had memorized every nook and edge of Satoshi’s body that he could replicate it perfectly.

Satoshi giggled along and took a peak to Masaki’s screen, “What’s that?”

 _Oh, the ‘Curious’ module is working._  
“A module so you could send me emergency alert when you’re in danger.”

Satoshi tilted his head and turned around, scanning through all the modules, “What for?”

“For emergency, duh,” Masaki laughed.

Satoshi didn’t respond to that. His finger was gliding through all the module’s labels. He read all the notes that Masaki had left on the labels. Masaki loved to leave notes on his inventions and creations, they were like his babies.

_‘Nicknames and Calling’ - It’s a manipulated voice but it’s good to hear your voice calling me again, Satoshi._

_‘Cuddling Masaki’ - My favorite. Works okay. Real Satoshi’s cuddle still the best, though._

_‘Cooking’ - Good. Nothing burnt. But I miss Satoshi’s slightly burnt toast. :(_

_‘Love to Fish’ - Can’t get it right. No one knows fish better than Satoshi._

_‘Artsy’ - IT’S A WRONG THING TO ASK SAKURAI SHO FOR HELP. Fixed it. It’s okay, now._

_‘Making Love’ - Unused. Can’t do it with anyone other Satoshi. The real one._

_‘Spacing Out’ - Good. That’s how Satoshi would be. If he’s around. WHERE ARE YOU, SATOSHI?_

_‘Fighting and Self Defense’ - Nino and Matsujun helped me in this. They miss you too, Toshi. Mission is less fun without you on the field, they said._

_‘Love Masaki’ - Can’t make this. One instrument not found: A beating heart that is in love with Masaki. I can’t make that. I can’t._

Satoshi felt a growing lump in his throat when like an afterthought, Masaki added in a grim manner, “I have enough missing person in my life to be searched for. I don’t want to add you to the list. One is already too many.”

“You have none,” Satoshi said.

“Hm?” Masaki didn’t quite understand.

“You have no missing person to be searched for.”

Masaki turned around. He couldn’t recall any module that could make Satoshi said that, “What?!”

There’s a layer of tears on Satoshi’s eyes and it scared Masaki. Masaki hadn’t created ‘Crying’ module before.

“Okay, I think you need a reboot now. Come here,” Masaki reached behind Satoshi and ran his finger through Satoshi’s spine.  
There’s a weird feeling in his stomach when he couldn’t find the power button.

“You have no missing person to be searched for, Masaki,” Satoshi repeated, “I’m here.”

“Hah?!” Masaki couldn’t grasp the situation.

Satoshi took Masaki’s hand in his.  
“It’s me,” Satoshi placed Masaki’s hand on his chest, “It’s me.”

Masaki gasped when he felt thumping beats on his hand. He started to think that he might be dreaming, but the slight pain he felt that was caused by Satoshi’s firm grip proved him wrong.

“I love you, Masaki,” Satoshi said. A tear rolled down his cheek, “I’m sorry it took me so long. But.. tadaima.”

One instrument found: A beating heart that’s in love with Masaki.


End file.
